6 Daily Habits That Damage Your Brain Health 

Experts argue that modern lifestyles destroy nerve pathways, making us slower and less capable of creative thinking. Modern habits make us less efficient and less productive. And to be productive, you need to do more of the things that improve brain function and less of the things that cause cognitive decline. We will tell you about what you should pay attention to in order not to harm the brain.

Brain Damaging Habits You Should Quit

Though physical health is important but if your brain health deteriorates, you will not be able to survive longer. In this section, we will tell you about the daily habits that can damage brain health. Therefore, you need to be cautious and quit them as soon as possible.

1. Spend A Lot of Time Sitting 

Spending a lot of time sitting, is one of the worst things for our brains. A new UCLA study found that people who spend a lot of time sitting (for work or other reasons) have impairments in the memory region of the brain.

Constant sitting is not only a physical health risk but also a neurological one. If for some reason you have to spend a lot of time in a sitting position, walk more. You should walk for at least five minutes or with breaks for 10 minutes to just stand in your sedentary schedule. Remember that low physical activity is the beginning of chronic health problems.

Obesity, depression, and cardiovascular disease are all associated with insufficient physical activity and many other aspects. Walking, cycling, and stretching are things that slow cognitive decline. Regular physical activity will help increase brain chemicals that help improve, for example, memory.

2. Smoking and Drinking Alcohol

Drinking alcohol and smoking can lead to the development of other serious diseases such as cancer. But this is not the only deadly thing about these bad habits. They also impair the functioning of the brain, causing poor memory, impulsive behavior, slowed reflexes, etc.

Therefore, you need to quit them so that the brain and rest of the body can function correctly. But when your partner is also involved in such habits, this makes it difficult to quit. Do not despair; if you really want to focus on your mental well-being, there are several options.

For example, you can contact a rehab center for couples and ask for relevant treatment. At the start, it might seem difficult but once you become sober, your and your partner’s life will become more cheerful.

3. Strive For Multitasking 

Few people let go of a smartphone. We text while walking down the street, check email on the way to work, read or listen to podcasts while standing in line. All of this is multitasking, and it reflects badly on our productivity. This habit reprograms the brain and reduces our efficiency.

Earl Miller, a neuroscientist argues that the human brain cannot connect to multitasking the way we would like it to. In fact, he just quickly switches from one task to another. And whenever this happens, the gray matter function deteriorates.

Additionally, multitasking increases levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) and adrenaline, which can over-stimulate the brain causing chaos in thoughts. In general, even if not talking about a smartphone, multitasking is not good.

4. Listen to Music with Headphones 

Everyone loves to turn up the music to make it somehow more fun or to avoid the surroundings. Doing this while wearing headphones is a sure way to impair your hearing. “What does the brain have to do with it?” Given that hearing impairment is directly related to brain problems. The brain has to work harder to understand the sounds around you.

Due to the design of the brain, it tries to recognize external sounds even when you listen to music with headphones. It is worth listening to music with headphones at medium volume to protect your hearing. Besides, it also allows your brain to function more calmly and better.

5. Overload Yourself with Any Information 

Some are happy to brag about how much they learned over the past day. But the constant and unregulated flow of information we receive creates stress for the brain. To take care of your brain health and improve its efficiency, it is worth using information filtering tools.

You need to kind of train yourself and your brain. Learn to ignore unnecessary information and not be distracted. You need to stay focused on what’s important and ignore other things.

6. Spend A Lot of Time in Front of Screens 

In today’s time, we spend most of our waking hours in front of screens (smartphone, TV, tabs, etc.) Lack of live interaction limits the brain’s ability to make better connections. This can lead to deterioration in mental health, which can be detrimental to brain health.

Talking live is very beneficial for the brain. A study from the University of Michigan found that talking in person improves memory and cognitive abilities. And for this, just ten minutes a day is enough. You need to understand that a large amount of time spent in front of the screens impairs vision.

It also leads to problems with the shoulders, neck, back, wrists, and forearms. According to experts, the abuse of screen time negatively affects emotional health and intellectual ability. Getting rid of screens is completely unrealistic. But in order to improve overall health, you can minimize its usage. Or make sure you use it only when required.

Conclusion

Brain-like the rest of the body requires special attention and care. Unfortunately, not many people pay attention to the brain’s health. We mentioned the most common brain-killing habits above. You need to abandon them or at least try to restrict them to save your brain from impairment. Remember, the rest of the body is somehow linked to the brain. If it fails, the whole body will collapse.